Pew Pew Pew! US Military Developing Laser Weapons to Down Enemy Drones

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Sci-fi authors and gamers have long imagined this day, and now it
has come: The U.S. military is developing a laser weapon to shoot
enemy drones out of the sky.

The Navy has already developed such a weapon that it plans to
deploy on a ship later this summer. The Office of Naval Research
(ONR), based in Arlington, Virginia, announced this week that
they are now interested in developing a similar laser
weapon for ground vehicles.

The somewhat ominously named GBAD program (short for Ground-Based
Air Defense Directed Energy On-the-Move) aims to provide "an
affordable alternative to traditional firepower" to guard against
unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that could track or target U.S.
Marines on the ground, ONR officials said. [ How
Do Laser Weapons Work? (Infographic) ]

"We can expect that our adversaries will increasingly use UAVs
and our expeditionary forces must deal with that rising threat,"
Col. William Zamagni, acting head of ONR's expeditionary maneuver
warfare and combating terrorism department, said in a statement.

The ONR is working with Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren
Division and industry partners to develop the laser system, which
includes a beam director, batteries, radar, cooling system,
communications and control.

Researchers are designing the futuristic weapon to be used on
lightweight military vehicles, such as the Humvee and Joint Light
Tactical Vehicle.

The laser system was developed in response to the Marine Corps
Science and Technology Strategic Plan, which called for a mobile
directed-energy weapon that could target and destroy enemy
drones.

"Everything about this program is geared toward realizing a
viable directed-energy capability in support of that objective to
allow our Marines to be fast and lethal," Lee Mastroianni,
program manager for force protection in ONR’s expeditionary
maneuver warfare and combating terrorism department, said in a
statement.

Several components of the laser have already been tested in
detecting and tracking drones of all sizes, according to the ONR.
Later this year, researchers will test the complete system using
a 10 kilowatt laser, with plans to eventually move to a more
powerful 30 kW laser, which is expected to be ready for field
testing in 2016. At that time, the program will conduct more
complex assessments of the laser on tactical vehicles, evaluating
how well it detects, tracks and fires on its targets.

The Navy has already developed a
ship-based laser weapon. An updated prototype will be
installed on USS Ponce for at-sea testing in the Persian Gulf,
Navy officials said recently. The Navy's weapon will target
unmanned and light aircraft, as well as small attack boats that
could deny access to U.S. forces, officials said. The laser was
used in demonstrations aboard a warship in 2011 to destroy
multiple small boats, and in 2012, the weapon successfully downed
several unmanned aircraft in tests.

The Department of Defense High Energy Laser Joint Technology
Office, MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory, the Penn State Electro-Optics
Center and the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command have
invested money and research into developing the technologies used
in the new laser system.

The weapon is being developed as part of the ONR's Future Naval
Capabilities program, which aims to rapidly translate proven
technology into something the military can use.